The Brazil Independence Cup was an international

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

tournament held in Brazil, from 11 June to 9 July 1972, to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Brazilian Declaration of Independence. It was called the ''Minicopa'' by the Brazilians and the final was between Brazil and Portugal, in the

Maracanã Stadium Maracanã Stadium ( pt, Estádio do Maracanã, standard Brazilian Portuguese: , local pronunciation: ), officially named Estádio Jornalista Mário Filho (), is an association football stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The stadium is part o ...

. Brazil won 1–0, with

Jairzinho Jair Ventura Filho (born 25 December 1944), better known as Jairzinho (), is a Brazilian former footballer. A quick, skillful, and powerful right winger known for his finishing ability and eye for goal, he was a key member and top scorer of th ...

scoring in the 89th minute. Brazil no longer had

Pelé Edson Arantes do Nascimento (; born 23 October 1940), known as Pelé (), is a Brazilian former professional footballer who played as a forward. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time and labelled "the greatest" by FIFA, ...

but still had Tostão,

and Rivelino, the later two also played in the

1974 FIFA World Cup The 1974 FIFA World Cup was the tenth FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in West Germany (and West Berlin) between 13 June and 7 July. The tournament marked the first time that the ...

, in West Germany. Despite Portugal's quality results and team, including Benfica players such as Eusébio,

Jaime Graça Jaime da Silva Graça (; 30 January 1942 – 28 February 2012) was a Portuguese football midfielder and coach. Club career Born in Setúbal, Graça made his professional – and Primeira Liga – debut with local Vitória Futebol Clube, appe ...

José Henrique José Henrique Rodrigues Marques (born 18 May 1943), known as José Henrique, is a retired Portuguese footballer. A goalkeeper, he was best known for his successful spell at Benfica, being nicknamed ''Zé Gato'' (Joe Cat). He appeared in 299 o ...

, Humberto Coelho,

Rui Jordão Rui Manuel Trindade Jordão (; 9 August 1952 – 18 October 2019) was a Portuguese footballer. His professional career was spent mostly with two of the biggest clubs in the country, Benfica and Sporting CP. One of the most prolific strikers ...

, and Toni, the team missed the World Cup 1974 and 1978 qualifying matches, so this tournament was their best result until the

1984 European Football Championship The 1984 UEFA European Football Championship final tournament was held in France from 12 to 27 June 1984. It was the seventh UEFA European Championship, a competition held every four years and endorsed by UEFA. At the time, only eight countries ...

Format

Twenty teams competed; 18 national teams as well as two representative sides from Africa and CONCACAF (North and Central America and the Caribbean).

First round

15 teams competed in the first round, while 5 teams ( Brazil, Czechoslovakia, Scotland, Soviet Union, Uruguay) received byes to the final stage. The teams are drawn into three groups of 5 teams. Each team plays each other team in its group once, earning 2 points for a win and 1 for a draw. The three first-placed teams advance to the final stage.

Final stage

The 8 teams are drawn into two groups of 4 teams. Each team plays each other team in its group once, earning 2 points for a win and 1 for a draw. The two group runners-up play each other in the third-place playoff. The two group winners play each other in the final.

Venues

The tournament was played in 12 cities: Aracaju,

Belo Horizonte Belo Horizonte (, ; ) is the sixth-largest city in Brazil, with a population around 2.7 million and with a metropolitan area of 6 million people. It is the 13th-largest city in South America and the 18th-largest in the Americas. The metropol ...

, Campo Grande, Curitiba, Maceió,

Manaus Manaus () is the capital and largest city of the Brazilian state of Amazonas. It is the seventh-largest city in Brazil, with an estimated 2020 population of 2,219,580 distributed over a land area of about . Located at the east center of the s ...

, Natal, Porto Alegre, Recife, Rio de Janeiro,

Salvador Salvador, meaning "salvation" (or "saviour") in Catalan, Spanish, and Portuguese may refer to: * Salvador (name) Arts, entertainment, and media Music *Salvador (band), a Christian band that plays both English and Spanish music ** ''Salvador'' ( ...

and São Paulo.

Squads

Group stage

Group A

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Group B

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Group C

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Final stage

Group A

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Group B

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Third place match

Final

Statistics

Goalscorers

Hat-tricks

References

* Macario Reyes:
Brazil Independence Cup 1972
',

Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation (RSSSF) is an international organization dedicated to collecting statistics about association football. The foundation aims to build an exhaustive archive of football-related information from around the ...

, 27 June 2007. * Eliézer Sebastián Pérez Pérez:
Brazil Independence Cup 1972 – Additional Details
', RSSSF, 6 July 2007.

External links

*
Sala de troféus
'

Confederação Brasileira de Futebol The Brazilian Football Confederation ( pt, Confederação Brasileira de Futebol; CBF) is the governing body of football in Brazil. It was founded on Monday, 8 June 1914, as , and renamed Confederação Brasileira de Desportos in 1916. The footb ...

, 27 May 2011. (Information about the Taça Independência) *
Tournament: Taça Independência (Mini-Copa)
', EU-Football.info (details about matches with European participation) {{DEFAULTSORT:Brazil Independence Cup

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, me ...

Independence Cup June 1972 sports events in South America July 1972 sports events in South America International men's association football invitational tournaments